Can playing roughly half as many games produce even a quarter of the thrills?

We promised you March would rescue a pedestrian college basketball season, because March is more reliable than UPS.

After a day saturated with spectacular games that included overtime in both Big East semifinals, upsets of the No. 2 and 3 seeds at the Big Ten Tournament and a buzzer-beater that kept alive North Carolina and buzzer-not-beater that saved Virginia Tech and Seth Greenberg—what could we ask for but another one just like it?

Starting five: The Connecticut Huskies had to win four games just to reach the Big East tournament final. And they’re not done. Now they’ve got a championship date against Louisville, which, like the Huskies, had to play overtime in the semifinals to advance. No team has ever won five games to claim a conference tournament title.

What’s with Duke’s toes? Three months after super freshman Kyrie Irving went down with a toe injury, the Blue Devils lost senior star Nolan Smith with, indeed, a toe injury. He is not expected to play in Duke’s ACC tournament semifinal against Virginia Tech, meaning sophomore Seth Curry will likely be in charge of the attack.

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Is everyone on the bubble? With three extra bids because of the expanded field, it seems more teams than ever are considered to be not in/not out. Among the bubble teams still alive today: Alabama (vs. Kentucky, SEC); Penn State (vs. Michigan State, Big Ten); Memphis (vs. UTEP, Conference USA); Clemson (vs. North Carolina, ACC); Richmond (vs. Temple, Atlantic 10).

What does Jimmer do for an encore? Those who wondered about BYU guard Jimmer Fredette’s player of the year credentials had something new to choke on after the first Mountain West semifinal: his 52-point explosion on 22-of-37 shooting against New Mexico, his nemesis. He wasn’t far from outscoring all 17 players in Penn State’s 36-33 Big Ten quarterfinal victory over No. 13 Wisconsin. A last chance to see Fredette short of the NCAA Tournament comes in the MWC title game with BYU playing San Diego State at 7 p.m. on Versus.

“He's very special,” New Mexico coach Steve Alford said. “Everyone knows that. The country knows that. Special players can have special evenings like this, especially in March.”